Our general comment would be that it does require your clients to download an app onto their phones. Our experience is that you will be missing out on communicating with a considerable group of your clients that will not want to do this.

The major functionality appears to be a booking system, which allows your patients to book appointments online. We refer users to our Patient Booking Gateway, which is tightly integrated with Front Desk and works using your practice rules and policies to book valid appointments. It can also allow your patients to cancel and reschedule when appropriate, as well as manage group classes. We currently have practices booking over 1,000 appointments per month and over 50% of their appointments online.

The main benefit of integration of cliniq apps is the automation of patient relationship. Meaning that one action via frontdesk ie purchase of specific product results in an automated email sent out with information on how to use purchased product. https://www.cliniqapps.com/

We were introduced to Cliniq apps at a workshop over the weekend and were very impressed. This is definitely something Smartsoft should be looking into, the options to contact patients within a few clicks is amazing and something we are looking to utilise within our clinic.

Hi Corinne. Thank you for your post. Smartsoft is always open to third-parties integrating with Front Desk. In this case, it would be up to Cliniq Apps to do the work to complete the integration, so we recommend contacting them to express your interest in integrating with your Front Desk system.

After a quick look at the Cliniq Apps website, there appears to be three main functions: Online patient bookings, automated patient communications and a reporting dashboard. Currently, Smartsoft offers a sophisticated online booking system, the Patient Booking Gateway, which is designed to work specifically with Front Desk. Front Desk also has tools to send out group communications via email, SMS and through integrating with MailChimp, though we acknowledge the benefit of automating this process. I can confirm that in the future, we will be introducing ways to automate reporting and communications with patients in Front Desk. Ultimately, you may not need to pay for a third-party application like Cliniq Apps.

Lastly, in the coming weeks, we will be releasing a reporting and KPI dashboard for all users at no cost, which you can see in the screenshot below (click the image to view it in fullscreen).

Hi Corinne. As per our comment above, it will be up to Cliniq Apps to do the work to complete the integration.

As of today, Front Desk will have both online booking and reporting dashboard functionality. These features are tightly integrated with Front Desk and therefore the functionality exceeds what is available with third-party interfaces. We also have automated patient communication on our radar for a future update, which may negate the need for third-party applications in this area.

Hi Shaun. I can't provide a concrete time frame on integration with CliniqApps at this stage. What I can say is that the Xero testing process is nearing completion, and our next major new functionality will be automating SMS appointment reminders in Front Desk.

Hi Mark. As above, we are currently in discussion with CliniqApps, and there are a few things to cover, in particular security and protection of your data. Smartsoft is also developing some functionality in this area, such as the Insights Dashboard released last year. Further, we will shortly be automating the SMS reminder communication.

What CliniqApps features and functions are you specifically looking for? Regarding automation, what processes/communications are you looking to automate? If you can provide the detail and there is interest, we can always add these to Front Desk as standard features.

Hey Timothy, like Mark we are also very interested in some of the features offered by cliniq apps - most notably:

- automation of patient communication- both SMS and emails based on pre-determined rules. Not only automated SMS appointment reminders but also the automation of emails/SMS for patients who have cancelled and not rebooked within a pre-determined timeframe, automated recalls based on medical condition and time since last appointment, automated patient education emails based on condition e.g. sending information before consults and at intervals after consults for particular conditions, sending out NPS survey to every patient and receiving the feedback in an easy to view format.

- electronic patient forms that sync directly into PMS - not only new patient forms which automatically populate details into file, but also forms that can be custom built and emailed to measure outcomes to specific treatments, the results of which are then automatically recorded in patient notes, and (for anyone reporting less than optimum results) those patients being automatically recalled for further management.

- reporting: reports & ROI calculation on automated recall campaigns - being able to view the number of people who open/the click through rates. Plus the number of patients that make bookings from these campaigns, and then the ROI based on average appt value. I would also love to be able to view metrics such as podiatrist occupancy rates on a dashboard (i currently have to calculate this manually using the report in Front desk + the hours worked during the same period in my accounting software). I also haven't been able to find a way in Front Desk to measure numbers of, or get a list of, patients who cancel their initial appt and do not rebook.

Personally more than happy to pay for an add like cliniq apps on if it means features will be available sooner.